Birthday Fun

I can't believe how quickly it's gone by, but Anna's first year has been amazing! I was thinking originally of doing a seperate post when her birthday actually arrived on Wednesday, but then I remembered that I haven't exactly been religious at posting, so I decided on a two birds with one stone kind of thing.
We had Anna's birthday party yesterday, and she was just such a cutie in her little outfit that Grandma Sue gave her! We stripped her down for the cake part though; I wasn't sure a bib would cut it. In this picture, Daddy is standing behind the fantastic photographer (Grandma Birch) making Anna look so incredibly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Then, she really got down to business when introduced to her slice of the cake. You don't want to mess with this hungry bear.

This was the cake I made for her. I got the box idea from a paper plate, but then pretty much came up with everything else on my own. Anna's all time favorite thing right now is animal noises, so I thought it was very appropriate!

At one year, here are Anna's top favorites in her little life (in no particular order):

1. Daddy wrestling. She actually tackles him and burrows her head into him as if trying to bull doze him over. She usually ends up with beard rash, but I know she thinks it's totally worth it!
2. Farm animals. As mentioned, she loves the animal noises that Meh (that's Mama's name) makes. We read her farm books every night. She also loves "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?", which has mostly farm animals, but a bear and some children, too. (Sounds like a bad combo...)
3. Peaches and Pears. Her favorite food right now - she will eat enough to make her sick.
4. Splash pad. She especially likes the Tempe Beach one; there are little whales there that she stands up to, plays with the water coming out of it's spout, and stands without holding on to anything! Ooooooh...
5. 5 Little Monkeys. This is her favorite song, usually because I substitute it with, "Anna is a monkey, jumpin' on the bed; she fell off and bonked her head!...and the doctor said, 'No more Annas jumpin' on the bed!'" I replaced the real lyrics when she did fall off the bed last week.
6. Outside. Anywhere, anytime. This girl is an outdoor addict just like her Mama, or "Meh".
7. Eyes. She will poke anyone's at any given moment. Poor PJ just doesn't think to walk away, plus his eyes are so round and bulging, it's hard to blame her.
8. Being upside-down. She has a little game where she sits on our laps facing us and holds our hands while bending backwards so she's upside-down. She particularly likes her exposed neck tickled and ending her game with a flip that she always lands!
9. Family. She loves her cousins, aunts and uncles, and especially her grandparents!
10. Taking us for walks. Although not walking on her own yet, she absolutely loves taking our fingers and walking us around to everywhere she wants to check out, which is EVERYWHERE!

That's our little Anna! Happy Birthday; we love you sweetie and can't wait to share this next year with your bright and shining self!

Baby Names - BabyNamey.com

Fun in the Sun

SORRY it's been sooooo long since I posted. I am actually not so excited about blogging anymore. I just have lots to do, and find that blogging is at the bottom of my list. BUT, since I feel so guilty for not keeping distant family up to date with our little one, here goes. We celebrated Evelyn's second birthday yesterday and Anna just loved the splash pad there. Although she's getting pretty tan, she still can burn, so she's wearing a hat and a surf shirt to cover as much up as possible. The pants are because of the flooring on a splash pad; although softer than lava rock, it still tends to rip up her knees. I don't know why I even bothered putting her in swimming attire at all, you can't even see it. :) Anyway, things are going great with us! Jared's working hard at both school and work, and I'm chasing this little one around all day. Hopefully I can post something in the near future out of excitement instead of guilt. Later!

Not For the Faint of Heart

I just want to give kudos to our amazing daughter who just made an attempt at eating a wasp, and was unsuccessful. We've had a couple of wasps hanging out around our balcony lately, and I kill them as soon as I see them, but apparently, one ducked into our house without me noticing. Anyway, at some point this morning it became "mostly dead" and was laying on our floor - ready for Anna's investigation. I guess it's reflexes kicked in when a chubby hand picked it up and put it in an open mouth. Lo and behold - unhappy wasp - unhappy baby. She only screamed for a second or two while we were trying to figure out where it had gotten her (the culprit was in plain sight at that point...). The swelling showed up a minute or two later.

Anyway, she is doing fine, and the picture actually depicts a very grumpy girl, but she's actually all smiles this morning as usual! KUDOS big girl!!

Children's Museum

Updated Pics

Here are just a few more pictures from outings, the Children's Museum, and one more Christmas one.

Life...

Well, it's happened again...life. I can't believe how the time gets away from me sometimes. Sorry there haven't been any posts as of late, and I don't really have any substantial excuses. Here is the latest: Jared continues to work hard at becoming the best nurse possible through schooling and work. He starts a new program in the summer that should prove exciting. He still works at the Arizona Heart Hospital full time and is a tremendous father. I am keeping busy with Anna and caring for our home and family (along with constant research for and slow development of my book). I love being a mother, more than I would have ever imagined. I attribute so much of my joy to having such a wonderful and enjoyable daughter. Anna will be seven months in a week or so, and I can't believe how big she is getting! She finally got her cranial band to help shape her head. It was just a little wide and slightly flat on the back, despite only spending her sleeping hours on her back. She'll wear the band for a few months, and so far, she doesn't seem to even notice it's there! She spends a great deal of her time these days trying to get her body to move the way she wants, and is quite successful at it! She pretty much can get to wherever she wants now, even though she's not officially crawling. She scoots, rolls, and army crawls around to reach her destination, which is usually one of the dog's tail or paw. Mary and PJ are forever loving toward her, and often curl up into a ball against her back as she plays with her touch and feel puppy book. I don't think that Anna will crawl for very long once she figures it all out. She's already pulling herself up on things in order to stand, but she doesn't know how to fall yet. She has a tendency to just lock her knees and tip over. Luckily, we have always been there to help. She continually makes verbal noises, but they aren't cute little coo's and ah's. It sounds like she is trying to mimic a wookie, vibrating the back of her throat. It's funny. Anyway, that's all we've been up to lately. Here are a couple of pictures:

Expressions of Anna

This kid gets cuter and cuter every day. Of course that comes from a biased opinion; maybe in all reality she has a mug only a mother could love. Either way, this mother's lovin' it!

Vain Much?

This video cracks me up. This is Sueann playing with Anna (who is apparently quite pleased with herself):

Generations

During our Thanksgiving trip to Idaho, we were to be able to make the rounds to some of Anna's "great" relatives that she hadn't met yet! This was very special to me in particular because I only have one memory regarding any of my great grandparents (a funeral). I hope she is able to spend time getting to know them so she can have wonderful memories to cherish!

Here is Eldon Croft, Anna's father's, father's, mother's father - her great great grandfather! Our first son, whenever he comes along will be named after him. He was so cute feeding Anna while he told me faith promoting stories of his experience being called as Elder's Quorum President after years of inactivity.

There were a few times when the bottle would drift away from her mouth, and she would attempt to recover it with her lips, but she never fussed while "Grandpa Eddie" and I talked of the past. :) Grandpa Eddie and my great grandfather, Henry Hill used to work together in the sheep industry. Eddie had the sheep, and Henry sheared them. I think it's so special that Jared's and my history is intertwined with family that served one another.

This is Anna's father's father's mother and father; Grandpa Eddie's daughter and son-in-law, whom he converted to the Gospel. Anna was in love with a little African doll with beaver fur hair that Grandma Gardner played with.

This is Anna's father's mother's mother and father. Anna was greatly entertained by a pair of singing penguins that Grandpa Smith pulled out of his toy stash!

Anna comes from such a wonderful heritage, it was such a blast spending time with all of our family over Thanksgiving!